Rick Ray considered purchasing public TV’s Nightly Business Report earlier this year but last week ended up as its new c.e.o. instead. Atalaya Capital Management, the New York venture-capital firm that ended up owning the show, was shopping it around in March, said Ray, a veteran media executive who built cable syndicator Raycom Sports. He took a look, was intrigued and spoke with Atalaya. But the timing for a deal wasn’t right at that point, Ray said; he was too busy with several other projects. “But I liked what I saw” in NBR, Ray said. He got back in touch with Atalaya within the past month to check on the status of the sale, “and they said, ‘Funny you should ask!

On the Nov. 20 edition of his KCRW broadcast le Show, host Harry Shearer delivers a sardonic reading of a Nov. 17 current.org blog post, “NPR test-drives personalized Infinite Player.” Shearer, who has many notable film and TV credits but is perhaps most famous for his voice work on The Simpsons, has been a frequent critic of NPR since 2010. That’s when the network declined to give airtime — even as paid underwriting spots — to his documentary about the failures of the federal levee system surrounding New Orleans, The Big Uneasy. Readings from trade periodicals are a regular feature of le Show.

When a candidate wins re-election but withdraws from service before taking office, does the electorate get another chance to vote? Given the irregular turnover after NPR Board elections this summer, station leaders in Western States Public Radio think so. After American Public Media President Jon McTaggart won re-election to a three-year term and resigned before taking the director’s seat, WSPR objected to the NPR Board’s decision to appoint a replacement rather than hold a new election. The resolution said its complaint involved procedure, not McTaggart or the board’s selection to succeed him, Marita Rivero, g.m. of television and radio at Boston’s WGBH.

PBS Hawaii was temporarily off the air after a studio fire Friday (Nov. 18) caused more than $250,000 damage, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports. The fire department initially extinguished the blaze, caused by a burst lightbulb, but later returned when the blaze reignited. Power was restored early Saturday afternoon, the station said, and regular programming resumed on cable by 2 p.m. and over-the-air by 3 p.m. Some programming Monday could still be affected. UPDATE, Nov. 21: The station is back on the air, but parts of the studio set will have to be replaced or re-built, according to KHON2 in Honolulu.

CPB gave its top honor for individual service, the Ralph Lowell Award, to Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the bowtie-wearing, bike-riding Oregon Democrat who chaired and helped create the Public Broadcasting Caucus in Congress. “Rep. Blumenauer is dedicated in his support of public media,” said CPB President Patricia Harrison in the announcement Nov. 18, timed for an evening ceremony in Washington, D.C. “He understands the value delivered to every American citizen through public service media, on air, online and in the community, and the important role that each public television and radio station – locally owned and operated – plays in strengthening our civil society.”

Despite its recent announcement of a five-show, $50 million production deal, KCET in Los Angeles continues to struggle as the nation’s largest indie pubTV station, reports the Los Angeles Times. Viewership is down, and the station now averages just 20,000 tune-ins a night during primetime, it said. Also, “no question, going independent has affected viewer support,” said Gordon Bava, KCET board member, referring to the station’s departure from PBS in January (Current, Oct. 18, 2010). “Corporate support is down, but to some extent, that is a function of the lack of local programming.” The newspaper said a KCET spokesperson confirmed that individual membership is down but gifts from major donors are up.

The Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis today (Nov. 17) launched the public portion of $25 million funding campaign, “Igniting the Spirit of Possibility.” Gifts and commitments already total more than $13 million, including $1.5 million from Emerson, a global manufacturing and technology company headquartered in the city. The campaign has five components: The Annual Fund, Future Fund, Venture Fund, a Capital Improvement and Technical Capacity Fund and a Public Media Commons Fund. Jack Galmiche, president of Nine Network, said that the campaign has already received commitments from all members of the Nine Network Board of Directors, as well as members of the organization’s Legacy Nine planned giving society and from the network staff.

American Public Television just announced that it will now distribute Nightly Business Report once again. PBS had distributed the show for the past five years; it was in the NPS from March 2005 through June 2011 and on PBS Plus since this July. “NBR Worldwide Inc. has determined that for various business reasons, APT is a better fit for the distribution of their series,” PBS told stations in a memo. On Wednesday (Nov. 16), longtime commercial broadcaster Rick Ray took over as c.e.o. of NBR Worldwide, the show’s parent organization, a position formerly held by Mykalai Kontilai.

NPR Digital Services is experimenting with a new personalized streaming interface for public radio listening, the Infinite Player. “It’s dead simple: you press a button and it plays,” writes Michael Yoch, director of product development. “First you hear the latest NPR newscast. That’s followed by stories we think you’ll like from NPR’s three main focus areas, news, arts and life, and music. The only controls are skip, pause and 30-second rewind.” “We’re calling it the Infinite Player because it will continue playing stories until you turn it off, just like the radio.” Listeners can use the “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” buttons to indicate whether they like a story, and the player will adapt to their preferences.

In response to the recent scandal in its university athletic department, in which a former assistant coach has been accused of sexually abusing multiple boys over 15 years, Penn State Public Broadcasting is producing a special live one-hour interactive program, Confronting Child Sexual Abuse, at 9 p.m. Eastern Thursday (Nov. 17) on WPSU-TV and WPSU-FM as well as WHYY. It will also be simulcast on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) and streamed online.  Host Patty Satalia will moderate a panel including Lucy Johnston-Walsh, supervising attorney for the Children’s Advocacy Clinic of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law; David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire; Pamela G.

NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! will make its television debut on BBC America on Dec. 23 with a “2011 Year in Review” special at 8 p.m. Eastern. The show also will run on NPR stations that weekend, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The hourlong special, complete with host Peter Sagal, scorekeeper Carl Kassell and a panel of cutups, will tape live at the Chase Bank Auditorium in Chicago on Dec. 2. “As a long-time listener of Wait Wait Don’t… Tell Me!, I think its television debut is long overdue,” said Perry Simon, g.m., channels, BBC Worldwide America, “and I can’t wait to see what Peter, Carl and the team look like.”

Nightly Business Report, purchased in August 2010 by educational video salesman Mykalai Kontilai (Current, Aug. 23, 2010), has now been acquired by private equity firm Atalaya Capital Management, NBR Worldwide announced today (Nov. 16). Atalaya backed Kontilai’s deal to buy the show. Under the new ownership, NBR Worldwide will be led by Rick Ray, founder of Raycom Media. The press release did not specify if Kontilai would continue to be involved with NBR Worldwide, and the deal price was not provided. A press representative told Current that Kontilai and Atalaya would have no additional comments.

During the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Nov. 9, Public Broadcasting Atlanta hosted focus groups involving members of the community with vision or hearing disabilities. Participants listened to WABE-FM/90.1 or watched PBA30TV to provide feedback, which is being forwarded to the Federal Communications Commission. Research was conducted with the local Wireless Rehabilition Engineering Research Center (RERC), which promotes access to wireless technologies for persons with disabilities and encourages Universal Design to allow for wider use of future technologies. Above, an interpreter translates for hearing-impaired participants during an EAS focus group. (Image: PBA)

American Public Media’s Public Insight Network (PIN), a database of more than 130,000 sources worldwide, has its first international newsroom partner, the Mail & Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Media plays an essential role in addressing and exposing the top issues confronting communities, and the Mail & Guardian has long proven this with their groundbreaking news coverage,” said Joaquin Alvarado, senior vice president of digital innovation at APM. The newspaper was a leading opponent of apartheid in the 1980s and 1990s; more recently, its Centre for Investigative Journalism launched in April 2010. “In a country and continent where the voices of people on the ground are too often marginalized, PIN represents an exciting opportunity for the Mail & Guardian,” said Verashni Pillay, the paper’s deputy online editor.